[Corridor]
(A monastery cum castle on an island. Think St Michael's Mount, but a bit flatter and further from any shoreline.)
JIMMY: Lights.
(The lights come on and the two men and a woman walk forward. They are wearing protective clothing.)
[Acid room]
JIMMY: Lights. You know the drill, people. Plastic visors down and locked. Buzzer?
(Buzzer raises the lid on a large vat.)
JENNIFER: Reading of nine point seven.
JIMMY: Sounds a bit low for unrefined. How's the average?
JENNIFER: The acid potency stats have definitely dropped below the mean during the last quarter.
BUZZER: Prettier than a computer, isn't she?
JENNIFER: Give over, Buzz.
(Buzzer is standing on the edge of the vat when she gives him a nudge. He falls in.)
JENNIFER: Buzzer. Buzz.
JIMMY: Oh, great. Nice going, twinkle toes.
JENNIFER: I shouldn't have swung at him. Sorry, Buzz. My bad.
BUZZER: No, you're all right. Jimmy?
JIMMY: Well, no point carrying you back legless. Sorry, Buzzer. You're dead.
BUZZER: Well, this is a right pain in the armour. Heart's gone now.
JIMMY: Look, we'd best get off. Got to write this one up for the boss. Those suits cost a bomb. If I miss my boy's birthday filling out forms, I'll kill you again.
(Buzzer raises a farewell hand, which melts. Jennifer and Jimmy leave.)
JIMMY: Lights.
[Corridor]
JENNIFER: I'm looking at these readings, Jimmy, and the potency stats are way too low. We may have to take that read again. This thing is still jamming up on me.
BUZZER: So I think we'd better talk about what just happened back there. I could get compensation. I've seen the holo-ads. Had an accident in the workplace? Yeah, I have as it goes. I melted.
JIMMY: Let it go.
BUZZER: Just remember. When you're doing your report, it wasn't my fault. She took a swing at me.
JENNIFER: I never touched you. You've got two left feet, Buzzer.
BUZZER: I haven't got two left feet. Or any arms, neck, head, the chin. This body costs money, love.
JIMMY: Not as much as that acid suit.
BUZZER: Oh, lighten up. It's not like anyone was hurt.
(The version of Buzzer in the acid vat finally dissolves.)
[Tardis]
(Loud music reverberates through the Tardis. I'm told it is called Supermassive Black Hole by Muse. Whatever. Rory Isabella Ronald and Amy are playing darts.)
AMY: Forty six. Rubbishy, rubbishy, rubbish.
RORY: Hello? It's a double top.
Isabella : Wrong side of the wire, mister.
RORY: You're on the oche, Red.
(The scanner still cannot decide whether Isabella is pregnant or not. The Doctor turns off the music.)
DOCTOR: Who wants fish and chips?
(Rory raises his hand.)
DOCTOR: I'll drop you all off. Take your time. Don't rush.
RONALD : Er, and you? Things to do. Things involving other things.
Isabella : Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things.
DOCTOR: Nope.
AMY: Whatever you're up to, I'd personally like to be a part of it. What?
(A klaxon blares, then everyone gets thrown around.)
DOCTOR: Solar tsunami. Came directly from your sun. A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big.
RORY: Oh Doctor, my tummy's going funny.
DOCTOR: Well, the gyrator disconnected. Target tracking is out.
(The Tardis heads for Earth.)
DOCTOR: Assume the position!
(Amy Isabella Ronald and Rory put their heads between their knees, then it all goes still.)
DOCTOR: Textbook landing.
[St John's Island]
DOCTOR: Behold, a cockerel! Love a cockerel.
(A weathervane.)
DOCTOR: And underneath, a monastery. Thirteenth century.
Isabella : Oh, we've gone all mediaeval.
RONALD : I'm not sure about that.
AMY: Really? Mediaeval expert are you?
RORY: No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield.
(You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. The Doctor inspects a hole in the ground with a pipe running through it. The pipe is labelled Danger Corrosive.)
DOCTOR: These fissures are new. Solar tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles. This is caused by a magnetic quake that occurs just before the wave hits.
Isabella : Well, the monastery's standing.
(The Doctor takes a snow globe out of his pocket and shakes it.)
DOCTOR: Yeah, for now.
RORY: Doctor, look.
DOCTOR: Yeah. It's a supply pipe. Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island to the mainland.
RONALD : My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield.
DOCTOR: Who isn't? Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity.
[Courtyard]
AMY: So where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?
DOCTOR: I think we're here. This is it.
RORY: Doctor, what are you talking about? We've never been here before.
DOCTOR: Hmm?
Isabella : We came here by accident?
DOCTOR: Accident? Yes, I know. Accident.
RONALD : Ow!
DOCTOR: Acid. They're pumping acid off this island. That's old stuff. Fresh acid, you wouldn't have a finger.
TANNOY: Intruder alert. Intruder alert.
DOCTOR: There are people coming. Well, almost.
AMY: Almost coming?
DOCTOR: Almost people.
RORY: I think we should really be going.
Isabella : Come on!
RONALD : I'm telling you. When something runs towards you, it is never for a nice reason.
[Harness room]
(Buzzer and others are reclining in harnesses in the alcoves.)
AMY: What are all these harnesses for?
RORY: The almost people?
Isabella : What are they, prisoners, or are they meditating, or what?
DOCTOR: Well, at the moment they fall into the or what category.
TANNOY: Halt and remain calm.
DOCTOR: Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?
JIMMY: Don't move!
BUZZER: Stay back, Jen. We don't know who they are.
JENNIFER: So let's ask them. Who the hell are you?
(Amy looks around at the same people in the harnesses.)
DOCTOR: Well, I'm the Doctor, and this is Amy Isabella Ronald and Rory, and it's all very nice, isn't it?
Isabella : Hold up. You're all. What are you all? Like identical twins?
(Two more people walk in wearing acid suits. The woman seems to be in charge.)
CLEAVES: This is an Alpha Grade industrial facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble.
DOCTOR: Actually, you're in big trouble.
(He gets out the psychic paper.)
CLEAVES: Meteorological Department? Since when?
DOCTOR: Since you were hit by a solar wave.
CLEAVES: Which we survived.
DOCTOR: Just, by the look of it. And there's a bigger one on the way.
CLEAVES: Which we'll also survive. Dicken, scan for bugs.
BUZZER: Backs against the wall. Now.
DOCTOR: You're not a monastery, you're a factory. Twenty second century army-owned factory.
AMY: You're army?
CLEAVES: No, love. We're contractors, and you're trespassers.
DICKEN: It's clear, boss.
CLEAVES: All right, weatherman, your ID checks out. If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it? Hand out sunblock?
DOCTOR: I need to see your critical systems.
CLEAVES: Which one?
DOCTOR: You know which one.
[Flesh room]
(Another vat, this time filled with bubbling milky liquid.)
DOCTOR: And there you are.
CLEAVES: Meet the government's worst kept secret. The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level.
Isabella : Right. Brilliant. Lost.
CLEAVES: Okay. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything. Replicate a living organism down to the hairs on its chinny chin chin. Even clothes. And everything's identical. Eyes, voice
DOCTOR: Mind, soul?
CLEAVES: Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life but it still needs to be controlled by us, from those harnesses you saw.
RONALD : Wait, whoa. Hold it. So, you're Flesh now?
CLEAVES: I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer here. Don't be scared. This thing, just like operating a forklift truck.
DOCTOR: You said it could grow. Only living things grow.
CLEAVES: Moss grows. It's no more than that. This acid is so dangerous we were losing a worker every week. So now we mine the acid using these doppelgangers. Or Gangers. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid
BUZZER: Then who the hell cares, right, Jen?
JENNIFER: Nerve endings automatically cut off like airbags being discharged. We wake up and get a new Ganger.
JIMMY: It's weird, but you get used to it.
CLEAVES: Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger. Get back to the harness.
(Jennifer leaves. The Doctor scans the Flesh.)
BUZZER: Hang on, what's he up to? What you up to, pal?
DOCTOR: Stop it. Strange. It was like for a moment there it was scanning me.
CLEAVES: Doctor.
(The Doctor's hand is pulled to the surface of the Flesh.)
CLEAVES: Get back, Doctor. Leave it alone.
(He finally yanks his hand back.)
DOCTOR: I understand.
AMY: Doctor? Are you all right?
DOCTOR: Incredible. You have no idea. No idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind. I reached out to it, and it to me.
CLEAVES: Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor.
DOCTOR: How can you be so blinkered? It's alive. So alive. You're piling your lives, your personalities directly into it.
(Bang, flash.)
DOCTOR: It's the solar storm. The first waves come in pairs. Pre-shock and fore-shock. It's close.
CLEAVES: Buzzer, we got anything from the mainland yet?
BUZZER: No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation.
CLEAVES: Okay. Then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop. Now why don't you stand back and let us impress you?
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The Story of a mad Man with a box series 6 (Doctor Who)
एक्शनAmy, Isabella Ronald Rory and River Song receive invitations to the Utah desert where they meet the Doctor, who claims to be nearly 200 years older than when they had last seen him and says that he will take them to "Space: 1969". As they dine besid...
